Chestnut Tree House Nominated for a National Award

Anna Jones, Clinical Manager at Chestnut Tree House has been shortlisted for an RCNi Nurse Award in the Child Health category.

Celebrating the best in nursing across the UK, the RCNi Nurse Awards champion excellence in every care setting, from innovative projects to inspiring examples of patient care. The 2020 categories include mental health nursing, general practice and community nursing, excellence in cancer research, and child health. 

Anna Jones, Clinical Manager at Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice in Sussex has recently been named a finalist in the Child Health category of the RCNi Nurse Awards. The award celebrates individual nurses or teams who have used their initiative, insight and skills to improve the well-being of children and young people. Anna, who has been working at Chestnut Tree House for two years, was nominated for her innovative leadership in implementing ‘Ventilation Month’ at the children’s hospice, which included 200 individual training sessions on invasive ventilation.

“We knew that there were families in Sussex and South East Hampshire with children and young people requiring invasive ventilation who wanted to access our care services,” explains Anna. “Due to the specialist training required, we weren’t able to help these families before, but now we can.”

The training was integrated into a new care model which allowed the team to develop their skills whilst caring for children in their own homes and in the hospice building itself. This innovative training means that the Chestnut Tree House Care Team are now providing palliative care services to 15 invasively ventilated children and young people, offering respite breaks and community visits.

“The ventilation training means that we can help more people who need us, both at the hospice and in families’ own homes. Being able to offer that care and support is why we do what we do” says Anna.

The award nomination comes in a prestigious year as 2020 has been marked the Year of the Nurse, in honour of the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. Nightingale was a visionary nurse and leader, and among many others, Anna is proud to be a nurse. “I am passionate about paediatric palliative care and ensuring our hospice is responsive to the needs of our children and families in providing skilled and compassionate care”, says Anna.

“The clinical team have worked incredibly hard in learning new skills. The award would be a fantastic opportunity to share our achievements and inspire other professionals to transform practice. I hope to encourage others, that working in pediatric palliative care is a challenging and exciting area for nurses to develop professionally with also the scope to be innovative in meeting the changing care needs of children and young people.”

“It is an honour to be a finalist in these awards, especially alongside so many other inspiring nurses and nursing teams. But the best reward for me is seeing children, young people and families benefiting from our service, we have received excellent feedback from our families.”

Read more on Chestnut tree House here